Thompson Starts Laying Groundwork
CHARLOTTESVILLE — For the University of Virginia women’s basketball team, the workday officially began Wednesday with a 6:20 a.m. weightlifting session at John Paul Jones Arena.
Immediately after came the Cavaliers’ first practice of the summer under their new head coach, Tina Thompson, at the end of which the nine players were exhausted but upbeat.
As they stood in a circle near midcourt in the women’s practice gym at JPJ, Thompson asked them how they felt.
“Good!” responded guard Amandine Toi, whose enthusiasm elicited laughter from her teammates.
After her players headed to the locker room, Thompson was asked the same question: How do you feel after Day One?
“I feel encouraged,” said Thompson, who came to UVA in April after three seasons as an assistant at the University of Texas, the final one as associate head coach.
“It’s our first practice,” Thompson said, “and I’m asking them to do some things that they haven’t done. So I expected it to be a little ugly. It wasn’t great, but I wasn’t discouraged, because they kept doing it over and over and over until they got it right. That’s what I believe the attitude of this team to be: that we work really hard and our intentions are good. But you can’t know things you don’t know until you learn them.”
The Wahoos are coming off a season in which they finished 19-14 after losing to South Carolina in the NCAA tournament’s second round. Thompson’s predecessor, Joanne Boyle, retired from coaching after the season, but back from that team is a talented core of players led by juniors Jocelyn Willoughby, Dominique Toussaint, Felicia Aiyeotan and Lisa Jablonowski.
All four were at practice Wednesday, along with Toi, senior Moné Jones, redshirt junior Shakyna Payne, sophomore Brianna Tinsley and freshman Erica Martinsen. (Sophomore guard Khyasia Caldwell, who played in 14 games for UVA last season, is a gifted long-jumper who’s been focusing on track & field this month.)
“I think it was kind of what I expected,” Willoughby said of the first practice. “Right now, we are where we are. It’s going to be ugly the first few days as we adjust to a new system, a new style.
“I really like that Coach is holding us accountable, making sure that we’re getting the small details right As we saw last year, the small details kind of held us back in some of the bigger games. So getting those down and perfecting those now will definitely help us.”
As an undersized post player — at the University of Southern California, in the WNBA and for the U.S. Olympic team — Thompson had a legendary career. She was installed in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame this month and will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of fame in September.
Her new team is well aware of Thompson’s accomplishments in the sport.
“She was a very fundamentally sound player,” Willoughby said, “and that’s what she emphasized as a player, so that kind of translates to her mentality as a coach: really get the basics down and go from there.”
Indeed, Thompson stressed fundamentals during a brisk practice that lasted about 75 minutes: dribbling, passing, shooting. She’s starting to lay a foundation at UVA, and practice will “look like that every day until we get it right,” Thompson said.
When a drill went awry, the players ran it again. And then again, if necessary.
“We’re going to do things over and over and over again until we get it,” Thompson told her team, “and that’s OK.”
Under NCAA rules, a Division I women’s basketball team is allowed to carry 15 scholarship players each season. The Cavaliers aren’t close to the limit for 2018-19, but Thompson is hoping to add several graduate transfers this summer.
In the meantime, the `Hoos will practice with nine players — one of whom, Toi, is recovering from a knee injury and has yet to be cleared for full participation.
“It’s a small team right now,” Willoughby said. “But we know we still need to get in better shape, so it’s perfect for us.”
Because they’re short-handed, Thompson said, the Cavaliers will “have to be better conditioned. It’s what we have, and it’s where we have to work from. Until we have more of a bench and we have more bodies, this is what it is.”
In its final season under Boyle, UVA averaged 62.1 points per game, which ranked 12th among ACC teams.
Asked how she’d like the `Hoos to play in 2018-19, Thompson said, “I do want to get up and down, and I want to be able to run. But lot of people think that there’s not much technique and understanding of the game [required] to get out and run, and there is.
“You have to know ball placement. You have to know where your teammates are. You have to run wide to give your teammates enough time to clear the ball to outlet that pass. You have to be able to make those passes. So everything that we did today builds up to being able to run and fast-break and score early.”
The day started before dawn for her players, who would have enjoyed a little more sleep. Still, they impressed Thompson with their commitment.
“Everybody came in here with good attitudes and ready to work,” she said. “That’s definitely what a coach wants to see and what we ask for, because I think when you come with a mindset of working, the other stuff works itself out. It takes time, but it will eventually work itself out, because our intentions are good.”
Thompson told her players as much before they dispersed.
“I appreciate your effort,” she said.